The present invention relates to tie clips for fastening a necktie to a shirt.
Neckties have been considered as an important part of business and formal dressing. In use, the top of the tie is secured within the wearer""s shirt collar, and the lower ends of the tie lie adjacent to the wearer""s shirt front. Usually, one of the lower ends is wider than the other and rests on top of the narrower end. A loop, usually in the form of a designer label, may be applied to the necktie during the manufacturing thereof. This label may serve as a holder for the narrower end.
It is generally desirable to maintain the necktie in a relatively centre position over the shirt. Numerous problems may arise if the ends of the tie may move away from the shirt. For instance, the necktie may get wet when the wearer washes his hand in a sink. Therefore, a number of devices generally known as tie clips have been developed to fix the tie in a proper position.
Usually a tie clip engages a necktie from one side for fixing the necktie to the placket or edge of a shirt. In general, tie clips that are capable of clamping both the wider and the narrower ends may include a bar-shaped pedestal and a clipping piece adjacent to the pedestal at one of its end, and a biasing member for biasing the clipping piece against the back of the pedestal. In operation, the necktie may be clipped between the pedestal and the clipping piece when the tie clip is opened and enters from one side of the necktie. The same clip itself may also engage the shirt of the wearer, which may not be able to give enough leverage for some normal human movements, for example, when reaching for a higher level of a file cabinet or placing luggage in an overhead compartment. In such cases, either the tie, which is clipped onto the shirt, pulls the shirt displacing it, or the tie itself is displaced, creating the need to remove the clip or re-clipping it properly.
One possible disadvantage associated with tie clip as described above may be that the necktie may escape from the tie clip relevantly easily, especially when the tie clip also engages the shirt as the traditional tie clip only engages the necktie from one side. Although this problem may be solved by introducing engagement enhancing devices like teeth into the tie clip, this may damage the tie and is therefore not desirable.
One further disadvantage of traditional tie clips that clamp a necktie from only one side may be that it may bias the tie to one side. As a result, the appearance of the wearer may be affected. Additionally, the pedestal of a traditional tie clip may have to be substantially extended in front of the necktie that may further affect the appearance of the wearer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,301 describes a tie clip having a first bar on which a first clip is fixed. It further includes a second bar extending transversely and slidably connected to the first bar. A second clip is also a fixed to the second bar. In operation, the first clip is responsible for griping the designer label of the tie, while the second grip grips a placket of the shirt. However, this tie clip still clamps the necktie from only one side, and therefore, the problems as described above may still persist.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a tie clip that may solve at least part of the problems as present in the prior art. As a minimum, it is an object of this invention to provide the public with a useful choice.
Accordingly, this invention provides a tie clip for fastening a tie having two opposite sides. The tie clip includes at least one first tie fastener and at least one second tie fastener separated by a separation for fastening the opposite sides of the tie. A connector is immediate of and connecting the first and second tie fasteners, position behind a tie in use.
Preferably, the tie clip may further include at least one shirt fastener for fastening the tie clip to a shirt.
Optionally, the tie fasteners are slidably attached to the connector such that the separation between the tie fasteners (12,14) is adjustable. Preferably, the tie clip further includes a plurality of discrete stable positions on the connector for engaging the tie fasteners such that the tie fasteners are configurable between said positions to conform to different tie widths.
Preferably, the tie clip has one first tie fastener (12) and one second tie fastener (14), and the connector (16) is a bar. More preferably, wherein the connector has a recess for accommodating a narrow end of the tie.
Optionally, the tie clip has two first tie fasteners to engage a first side of a tie and one second tie fastener to engage a second of said tie, and the connector is substantially Y-shaped.
Alternatively, the tie clip has two first tie fasteners (12a) to engage a first side of a tie and two second tie fasteners to engage a second side of said tie, and the connector is substantially X-shaped.
Further, the tie clip of this invention may include decorative attachments removably attached to any one of the tie fasteners.